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March 3, 2005
Cape Verdean activists plan for island’s
30th anniversary
Yawu Miller
On July 5, 1975, the day of Cape Verde’s independence from
Portugal, Jose Barros was standing in the capital city of Praia
while activists were hoisting the newly-minted flag of what was
then Africa’s newest republic.
Thirty years later, Barros was recalling that moment during a
meeting of the Cape Verdean Independence Celebration Committee,
most of whose members were not yet alive in 1975. But despite
the youth of those gathered, the patriotism seems no less present
in the newer generation of Cape Verdean activists.
“This is another way of letting people know we’re
here,” says committee member Timmy Dos Santos. “We
don’t get anything positive in the media. This is a way
for us to express ourselves.”
The committee is planning on a grand scale for the celebration
of the 30th anniversary of Cape Verde’s independence. The
planning is not easy. The Cape Verdean community in the United
States is concentrated in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut,
with small pockets of population in Washington, DC, Atlanta, Florida
and southern California.
In the New England states, each community holds independence celebrations
on different days in the weeks before and after the July 5 date.
“What we’re hoping is that we can all work together
for draw more attention to the celebration this year,” says
Denise Gonsalves, executive director of Cape Verdean Community
Unido, a Roxbury-based organization. “This is the year of
collaboration.”
If all goes according to plan, the celebrations in Brockton, Onset,
New Bedford, Taunton, Providence, Bridgeport and Waterbury will
still happen on different dates, but entertainers flown in from
Cape Verde, speakers and publicity will be shared. By pooling
resources, Gonsalves says, all of the celebrations can benefit
from increased visibility.
Cape Verde is an archipelago of nine islands three hundred miles
off the coast of Senegal. The islands were colonized in the 1400s
by Portugal, then populated with Africans captured during the
slave trade and Portuguese settlers.
For hundreds of years the islands served as a trans-shipment point
for Portuguese slave traders. After the slave trade was abolished
in the 1800s, the islands remained an important part of Portugal’s
colonial empire, supplying Portuguese ships with fresh water,
safe harbors and new crew members.
Cape Verdeans first came to New England in large numbers during
the whaling boom of the 1800s. Many settled in New Bedford, where
there is still a large Cape Verdean Community. Many also worked
in the cranberry bogs of Southeastern Massachusetts.
In the 1960s, when movements against European colonialism were
flourishing across the African continent, many Cape Verdeans became
involved in the movement to end Portuguese colonialism. The Portuguese
had given Cape Verdeans Portuguese citizenship, but forbade them
from speaking their native creole language. Cape Verdean music
and cultural expression were also suppressed under Portuguese
colonialism.
Cape Verdean nationalists embraced their African identity in defiance
of the Portuguese. Although there were no shots fired in Cape
Verde, many fought in Guinea Bissau as members of the African
Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde. Cape Verdean-born
Amilcar Cabral, who led the movement in Guinea, became a national
hero after his assassination in 1973.
After years of fighting in Guinea, Angola and Mozambique, Portugal
apparently grew weary of fighting. After a military coup overthrew
the Portuguese government in 1975, the nation began relinquishing
control over its African Colonies.
Longtime Cape Verdean community activist Adalberto Teixeira was
living in Lisbon at the time of independence and watched the events
unfold on television.
“There was a sense of liberation,” he said. “You
grew up as Portuguese and all of the sudden, everything was changing
before your eyes. All of the sudden you had a Cape Verdean identity
that no one could challenge. It was your real identity.”
Cape Verdeans began celebrating their Independence Day here in
the 1970s. Teixeira helped establish the celebration, running
the event for several years before Unido took over.
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